Food; fads, fetishes and fascism

New year, new you; it used to be just ads for the gym and soon to be abandoned personal resolutions to somehow or other be "better", to lose a bit of weight, to give up smoking, chocolate, biting your nails.

But we are now faced with the Instagram onslaught of Veganuary and dry January.

What you eat is up to you, what we eat is our choice.  If I choose to eat jam and cauliflower, I don't expect you to follow suit (I don't by the way)....as a teenager my brother put Marmite on custard creams, it was just a phase which I put down to a lack of psychotropic drugs in rural Yorkshire.
I like to think my choice is well informed, balancing pleasure, nutritional needs, budget and a respect for the environment.  But researching this piece made me realise how hard this can be, how contradictory and confusing.

I do not take issue with meat free Monday, if you are already following a vegetarian or vegan diet, you are doing it any way and omnivores get to exercise a little imagination once a week.  But the on-line pressures to swap, whole-heartedly and without guidance, to a vegan diet present issues, as I see it.

Obesity, alcoholism, drug addiction, food banks, eating disorders, food allergies and a general lack of knowledge about basic nutrition and cooking skills are headline grabbing topics. Yet all of these are deeply complex and need to be explored from all angles.  There is no "one size fits all" solution, no magic bullet.  Knee jerk reactions, TV campaigns and sound bites are not enough.  

There are choices to be made and actions to be taken at individual, national and international levels, but the right choices and the right actions are hard to delineate.  Cooking from scratch and using cheap cuts of meat sound like a panacea to all our food issues, but if you haven't got the money to feed the electricity meter, a cheap takeaway may be your only option.  

As I started reading material relating to the things I was trying to get clear in my own mind, I felt like I was being sucked, like Alice on her trip to Wonderland, down a rabbit hole, only to end up on the dark side of the moon.  The sheer volume of material on all sides of the debate was overwhelming.  Some was carefully researched and scientifically beyond my comprehension, some bordered on dangerous lunacy.

If you then throw global famine, war, nuclear and chemical weapons, rising sea levels, plastic pollution, climate change, religious intolerance, refugee crises, modern slavery and terrorism into the mix, I feel like I have catapulted on to Ultima Thule, whose very existence was unknown to us until recently.

A quick scan of food trends for 2019 shows vegetarianism and veganism are on the rise. And fast food outlets and food processors and retailers are joining in.  The launch of Gregg's vegan sausage roll, the uproar it created and their magnificent PR handling of the entire event were as enjoyable as the product itself.  Try one, you never know, you may actually enjoy it.

No bad thing, but there are arguments on both sides.  It is generally agreed that we should reduce the levels of intensive animal breeding to reduce their impact on the environment and on the factors influencing climate change. 

Whether you eat meat or not, there can be no justification for intensive farming, poor animal husbandry and inhumane methods of slaughter.

But remember, when you campaign to save an endangered species, that many rare British breeds have survived to fill their place in our biodiversity, only because they have been bred for the table.   

These 2 articles demonstrate why we need to address a global uptake of veganism more carefully and not see it as a simple answer to an increasingly complicated question.

The first discusses how intensive dairy and meat farming is damaging, but so too are farms producing purely arable crops. A balance, well tended and managed, creates a richer biodiversity. 

The second addresses non dairy milks, hailed as healthier, more natural and more environmentally responsible than the dairy equivalents.  Like many vegan food products, the problem lies not in the ingredients, but the processes. 

And finally, this article touches on the concerns for the individual in swapping their diet for the promise of a "better" self. 

This is what causes me anxiety about the Veganuary campaign, the power of social media is a potent force and not everyone has the strength to resist its allure. A lot of people lead very healthy, active and happy lives on a vegan diet, but any and all diets need to be balanced, to give you everything your body needs and, in this writer's opinion, should also give you pleasure in your food.  

So, if you are well informed and sure that you are getting what you need, throw yourself in to Veganuary and don't be surprised that it is tastier than you think, but please make sure you know what you are doing.

And if you type vegan or vegetarian into the search box at the top of the screen, you will find some recipes to try out!  We are all for a more plant based diet, but please do not ask us to give up cheese!

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Comfort food - artificial sunshine

There are times when food really is the answer.....

I'm not talking about famine and food banks, neither of which should feature in our 21st century society and both of which remain fixed in the reality of the present day.

We have just been bombarded with the shrapnel (forgive me if that is an inaccurate military metaphor) of election issues, and whilst these food issues were not at the forefront of the debates, in fact were sadly little more than footnotes, let us hope that they WILL be tackled.

............and so,  back on message as the pollsters would say.

I am talking about *overused cliché alert* "comfort food", the so-called "hug in a mug", although I much prefer the "high in a pie".

This is about using what you put in your mouth - no smutty jokes at the back of the class, please - as a means to  lift your spirits and feed body and soul. A genuine mood enhancer.

If you believe in karma,  it will come as no surprise to you that after I started formulating this piece, I reached page 179 of Kay Plunkett Hogge's The Adventures of a Terribly Greedy Girl - the Comfort of a Roast Chicken.  This perfectly sums up everything I wanted to say. Damn you, Kay.  I urge you to read the whole book and appreciate the "full emotional clout of food"

Kay is an incisive, entertaining writer, her words compelling you to turn the pages and I write in her shadow.  But stick with me, you may find some resonance in my ramblings.

This is not about quick fixes and instant gratification. I am as prone as anyone to cravings, it's just that I am not a chocolate biscuit kinda girl and am most likely to found stuck into an oversized pot of coconut yogurt - each to their own!

This is not about reaching for the yogurt pot or a Mars bar, any more than it about ripping open a bag of crisps, face-planting a bowl of popcorn or cramming in a cream horn.................  I told you, no giggling at the back.

What I am ranting and rambling about is the solace of sustenance and the sheer joy of comfort food, achieved through comfort cooking.

The simple, yes, it has to be simple - go read Kay and Diana Henry  - process of mixing and heating.  A chemical reaction and an exercise in philsophy. Concentration, focus, dare I say "mindfulness.

Comfort cooking is not about cleverness or cockiness, it is about simplicity and satisfaction, and, quite possibly, a little alimentary alliteration.

Much has been said recently about coalitions of chaos, a phrase lately referring to the politics of our times,  but also, I believe, descriptive of the tsunami of alleged nutritional advice that swamps all forms of media and drowns out the little voice in your head that says, "All I want is a cheese sandwich"  White bread, saturated fat, gluten, carbs aaaargh!!!!! Shame on you.

We are assailed by wellness bloggers (yeah, ok so the English language is evolving, but like seriously, what even is that?), we are bewildered and bemused by an array of diet regimes (fads), rendered guilt laden if our calorific intake is not clean or real, bombarded by acronyms - just go away JERF - blinded by pseudo scientists telling us to eschew all E numbers (did you know that E simply stands for Europe and E300 is Vitamin C?) and misled by claims of the benefits of low fat and low sugar prodcuts.

If you have the time, please read Michael Mosley and One Angry Chef on these topics - they are waaaaay more qualified than I am to explain/debunk this crap to you. 

It is a sad truth that for many people, food represents challenges rather than comforts; be they pecuniary, supply issues or health related.

But for the rest of us, we can revel in food, take joy from growing it, buying it, engaging with producers, preparing, cooking and finally eating it - with relish!

Whereas junk food will give you a quick hit, prolonged satisfaction (again, quiet at the back, please), can be had from lining up a few ingredients, switching on the heat, switching off the outside world and performing a little alchemy.

Here is a little artificial sunshine, for days when you need a little lift.

Apricot and brown sugar cobbler

3oz butter

A dozen apricots

Maple syrup

2 oz ground almonds

4 oz self raising flour

½ tsp baking powder

2 oz dark brown sugar

Approx 130 ml buttermilk

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC

Put 1oz of the butter in a shallow Prospector pan and place over a low heat.  When the butter foams, add the halved apricots, cut side down.

Drizzle with maple syrup - it's up to you how sweet you want them and how ripe they are (the riper the fruit, the more naturally sweet they will be). Turn off the heat.

Put the pan in the oven and roast the apricots for 15 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, place the almonds, baking powder and flour into a food processor or large bowl. Chop the remaining butter and add to the flour.  Process/rub until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add the sugar and mix well.

Add just enough buttermilk (substitute plain yogurt or milk if you wish) to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces.

Roll each one into a slightly squashed ball.

Remove the apricots from the oven and arrange the dough balls on top.

Replace the dish in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.

Serve warm, rather than piping hot with clotted cream.

© Netherton Foundry 2017 

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk